NTC asks transporters to complete transport picture

The industry body wants industry members to aid policy makers make informed decisions

NTC wants help from the transport industry.

The National Transport Commission (NTC) is appealing to the transport industry to help it shape future policy reforms on freight and passenger movements in Australia.

The industry body is seeking responses to the Who moves what where study, which NTC CEO Paul Retter says will be made public to better inform governing bodies.

"At the moment Australia’s transport policy makers don’t have a complete picture of Australia’s transport movements and that’s a problem because better information usually leads to better policies," he says.

"A productive Australian transport system should base its planning, investment and access decisions on complete, comparable and the most up-to-date data."

Retter says the NTC has already had submissions from the CSIRO, and it’s Transport Network Strategic Investment Tool, but is looking for more detailed freight movement information.

"For example we know Australia’s transport industry collects a lot of information about freight movements, but most of that data isn’t available to policy makers."

"As a first step we need to find out what information is already collected by Australia’s transport industry and other bodies, and whether they are able to share more of it."

Primarily looking for answers from commercial and government-funded transporters, the NTC says it wishes to answer:

who is moving freight and passengers around Australia via rail or roads